BIG C CATHOLICS

In the words of St. Jerome, "Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." Moreover, the Church teaches that the Bible is the "soul of theology." The study of Sacred Scripture makes our faith come alive. To that end, I call your attention to a free, Catholic, online resource. Agape Catholic Bible Study is outstanding. In addition to Scriptural exegesis that is faithful to the Magisterium, it offers related charts, commentaries, maps and more. Deepen your knowledge of the mind of Christ. Visit today.

Adam and Eve were created as gifts to one another. Their very bodies made this truth known. It was through their masculinity and femininity that they could express total self-giving. This is called “the nuptial meaning of the body.” The nuptial meaning of the body is central to Pope Saint John Paul’s Theology of the Body. He references it numerous times throughout his catechesis. To love is the essential activity of the human person. We were created to love others and to receive love from others. Because our bodies make visible what is invisible in the world, it is through our bodies that we are called to be selfless and self-donative. This is evident most obviously  in the conjugal union. Moreover, we are called to love and to serve others in numerous ways using our bodies. We cannot serve others unless we have a physical self to serve with. Man can only discover himself through a sincere gift of himself. This is at the heart of Christ’s teaching. It is also the heart of the Theol

Alfred Bessette was born in Mont-Saint-Grégoire, Quebec, a town 25 miles southeast of Montreal on August 9, 1845. He was the eighth of 12 children [four of whom died in infancy]. So frail was he at birth that the priest baptized him conditionally. He was from a working-class family; his father, Isaac Bessette, was a carpenter and lumberman, and his mother, Clothilde Foisy Bessette, saw to the education of her children. St. André entered the Congregation of the Holy Cross as a Brother. He performed humble tasks for over forty years and entrusted all of the poor and sick who flocked to his cell to the care of St. Joseph. Brother André expressed a saint's faith by a lifelong devotion to Saint Joseph. During his life he was able to have a chapel built to the spouse of the Virgin Mary. After his death, the shrine grew into the great basilica known as St. Joseph's Oratory in Montreal. The Life of St. André Bessette Sickness and weakness dogged André from birth. He was the eig

Life Site reports five truly disturbing things we learned about Planned Parenthood last year. To those in the pro-life movement, none of the revelations, however shocking, come as a surprise. We have long understood that Planned Parenthood as a business puts profits over people, especially women and the unborn – a fact Planned Parenthood knows and fully embraces as their business model. From the article: Americans learned a lot of terrible things about Planned Parenthood this year, but these five just might take the cake. When it comes to the abortion giant – who receives $1.5 million per day of our own hard-earned money – we can’t afford to turn a blind eye. The five most disconcerting things we learned about Planned Parenthood in 2015 are: 1) Planned Parenthood wants abortions to be "plentiful." 2) Planned Parenthood knows abortion takes the life of a baby. 3) Planned Parenthood actually does abort babies who could survive outside the womb. 4) Planned Parenth

The following quote by Saint John Neumann bespeaks the incalculable dignity of every human being in the eyes of God; and our response to God's love and benevolence: Everyone who breathes, high and low, educated and ignorant, young and old, man and woman, has a mission, has a work. We are not sent into this world for nothing; we are not born at random; we are not here, that we may go to bed at night and get up in the morning, toil for our bread, eat and drink, laugh and joke, sin when we have a mind, and reform when we are tired of sinning, rear a family and die. God sees every one of us; He creates every soul, …for a purpose. He needs, He deigns to need every one of us. He has an end for each of us; we are all equal in His sight, and we are placed in our different ranks and stations, not to get what we can out of them for ourselves, but to labor in them for Him. As Christ has worked, we too have but to labor in them for Him. As Christ has His work, we too have ours; as He rej

John Nepomucene Neumann was born in Bohemia [now the Czech Republic]. While in the seminary he felt a desire to help in the American missions. After coming to the United States he was ordained in New York in 1836. Entering the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, he worked in establishing parishes and parish schools. In 1852 he was consecrated Bishop of Philadelphia and prescribed the Forty Hours devotion. Neumann was fluent in six languages before coming to the United States. Shortly after his arrival, he was ordained a Catholic priest of the Redemptorist order. He is the first United States bishop [and to date the only male citizen] to be canonized. As Bishop of Philadelphia, Neumann established the first Catholic diocesan school system in the United States. The Life of St. John Neumann John Nepomucene Neumann was born on March 28, 1811, the third of six children of a stocking knitter and his wife in the village of Prachatitz in Bohemia. From his mother he acquired the spi

During her life, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton played many roles serving others in the imitation of Christ. In honor of her feast day, here are thirty quotes from the saint whose labors as a wife, mother, nurse, educator and religious instilled in her extraordinary intelligence, insight, wisdom and faith. Live simply, so that all may simply live. *** The gate of heaven is very low; only the humble can enter it. *** The first end I propose in our daily work is to do the will of God; secondly, to do it in the manner he wills it; and thirdly to do it because it is his will. *** If I had to advise parents, I should tell them to take great care about the people with whom their children associate... Much harm may result from bad company, and we are inclined by nature to follow what is worse than what is better. *** The accidents of life separate us from our dearest friends, but let us not despair. God is like a looking glass in which souls see each other. The more w